


Bananas and Brie

by Carradee



Series: The Lion and the Wolf [2]
Category: Cassandra Palmer Series - Karen Chance, Dorina Basarab Series - Karen Chance
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 15:58:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17164937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carradee/pseuds/Carradee
Summary: or: when the consulfinallygot to talk to Dorina.A vignette set in the middle ofRide the Storm/Shadow’s Bane, so spoilers!





	Bananas and Brie

**Author's Note:**

> If I’ve mapped the timelines correctly between _Ride the Storm_ and _Shadow’s Bane_ , the attack on Cassie seems to have fallen in the midst of that “I slept for over a day” that opens Chapter Fifty-one of _Shadow’s Bane_.

Kit Marlowe was with his lady, who Sired him and commanded him still, when she finally met Dorina in the flesh.

Rather, in the flesh, outside an emergency, and without the personality or person usually in charge of that body being awake.

The night had run longer than usual, and he and she were staying up longer still, to strategize and plan and make contingencies. There was nothing new about that.

Where they were holed up, though, was unusual, in rooms that belonged to neither of them and had guards stationed at the door to theoretically prevent their entry. As if anyone could bar his lady in her own house.

He kept glancing at the dhampir on the bed even though he _knew_ both women in the body were asleep. At least, he was pretty sure they were two different women and not just personalities, though her father insisted otherwise.

“The Pythia won’t buy that,” he said, of an idea for how to maneuver in the delicate political dance they were playing. “She’s convinced you’re itching to torture Tomas again.”

His lady sipped her wine, gaze dropping to the table between them where various finger foods rested. As vampires, they didn’t need to eat; as _master_ -level vampires, they could taste food again and enjoy eating. But this spread wasn’t for either of them.

Something shifted in the room, a sense in the air or…

He glanced warily at the woman on the bed.

“Help yourself,” his lady said, with a lazy wave to the table.

The woman who rolled to her feet moved silently and smoothly, so much more agile and quick than her twin despite the body they shared. It made the hair stand on the back of his neck, even before he thought about what he knew of her.

Like he and his lady, Dorina classified as a first-level master, which meant she had at least three special talents. As he’d never even heard of a dhampir surviving past a human lifespan before meeting this one, it was impossible to be certain which of her skills were _powers_ and which were just what a dhampir naturally developed with age.

The psychic Scream that could knock out everyone in a room doubtless came from a power, but was that a distinct thing or just part of her mental talents? (And if part of her mental talents, did that mean her father could do that, too?)

And even if those were two distinct powers, what was her third? Did she have more than three?

His lady watched Dorina with idle amusement. _She’s not going to attack us, Kit._

He was reasonably sure of that—Dorina had demonstrated that she shared Dory’s propensity to attack or kill _in defense_ , not for the hell of it. But Dorina’s definition of _defense_ was a bit more proactive than Dory’s. If she’d overheard the betting that his lady was out to kill her father, if she _believed_ that gossip…

Dorina paused beside the remaining chair, considering his lady and to all appearances ignoring him though he wasn’t using one of his master’s powers to go dim. An insult, and doubtless an intended one.

She plucked a banana from the fruit bowl and slipped into the chair, discreetly adjusting its angle so she could keep them both in line of sight, still without acknowledging him. Definitely testing for his reaction, discreetly checking how much social power she had in this situation. Well played.

She focused on that banana as she peeled it, every bit as insouciant as her twin, though she was subtler about it. “Next time? Tell me.”

His lady’s eyes softened ever so slightly with amusement at the command. “So certain you could keep your father from detecting insincerity?”

Dorina’s flat look, given between bites of banana, spoke volumes. Whether she was a person or personality, her father always did assume the worst of her.

The more Kit observed of her, the less he understood why. _Dory_ was the one who picked fights for the hell of it. Dorina was just willing to admit that she would enjoy picking them.

And both were quite selective about who they killed—which, come to think of it, explained Dorina’s current frustration. She’d mistaken the Pythia for a threat to her father’s life, not knowing that her father had mated the woman, making her his wife under vampire law. His lady had taken advantage of that ignorance…with a miscalculation that had nearly cost them all dearly.

The last of the banana went away, and she stared his lady in the eye as she snatched the Brie. “ _Tell me_.”

His lady returned the steady look as she sipped her wine. “And how would I do that?”

 _Mentally,_ he heard in Dorina’s voice, through the vampire mind speech. He flinched.

His lady’s expression retained the soft cant that made him wonder if she’d known another dhampir, somewhere in the millennia she’d lived. Her eyes shifted ever so slightly in acceptance. Next time she needed something from Dorina, she wouldn’t trick her into providing it.

She stood, wineglass in hand. “Enjoy your meal.”

Her glance flicked to Kit before she strode out the exit, so he stayed seated. The Pythia liked him enough that he could prevent a disaster if she stormed in here.

Dorina set a cluster of grapes on a napkin and nudged it his way, a disquieting reminder of the talents he knew about—talents that were also why his lady had ordered him to stay without saying so explicitly: Dorina was a _mentalist_ , more than capable of eavesdropping on mind speech.

She also, obviously, was observant enough to notice what had caught his eye. He paused, hoping he wasn’t reading into the action, and helped himself to a slice of the Brie.

Amusement softened her face, though not to the point of showing the dimples Dory tended to around Louis-Césaré. She was neither insulted by the offered protection nor attracted to him, thank God.

She tried pairing the Brie and grapes, herself. “Not for love of _me_ , at least.”

He choked on air. “ _What_?!”

“When you betray me,” she said matter-of-factly, grabbing another banana as his own attention grabbed that _when_. “Won’t be because you ‘love’ me.”

 _When_ he betrayed her?

Marlowe stared at her, this woman a century his senior, and desperately wanted to break something. Even _he_ wasn’t that fatalistic.

For someone whose Achilles’s heel was his family, her father was expert at fucking his up.

**Author's Note:**

> In _Death’s Mistress_ , when Dory comments on how Marlowe seems to have the consul’s hand up his ass, Mircea says they’re just very much alike, and Marlowe is supposed to be a sneaky bastard, so that means the consul is, too, right?
> 
> And isn’t it kind of weird that protecting Dory is often falling on _Marlowe_? And that the presumably-afraid-of-Mircea consul has ignored or sabotaged every opportunity to claim offense at Cassie/Dory/Dorina/Louis-Césaré _and_ has actually protected and educated them more than once? Even her pointedly telling Cassie about Mircea’s daughter could be a “Explain this before one of them kills the other!”
> 
> There’s more—I seriously have an essay drafted on this, from details through the books, some of which suggest the consul and Marlowe may be actively protecting Dorina specifically, not just Dory—but anyway…mapping it out is fun enough that I'll probably be doing these intermittently, thus the series.


End file.
